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Anti-police brutality activists in New York City took a trip to a gentrified neighborhood on October 18 to catch white people freely committing the type of crimes that get black and brown people regularly harassed by cops.

The group that organized the action, the Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, took to the streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn Sunday afternoon and handed out fake summonses to white people committing small quality-of-life crimes.

“We’re out today just giving mock summonses to people in Park Slope,” said Josmar Trujillo, a member of the Coalition to End Broken Windows, one of the groups that joined the action in Park Slope. “White people are not used to getting any kind of police enforcement around low-level offenses.”

The action was intended to highlight the racial disparities in the New York Police Department’s practice of Commissioner Bill Bratton’s signature “broken windows” policy. According to the policy’s reasoning, small, quality-of-life offenses need to be strictly enforced by police lest any apparent tolerance for these small crimes lead to criminals confidently committing much more serious crimes. In practice though, this approach to crime has mostly resulted in police routinely harassing and brutalizing people in communities of color, often as a method of clearing up a neighborhood for future gentrification.

“Blocking the sidewalk, jaywalking — those are the two main activities where we found white people were violating some aspect of the municipal code,” Robert Gangi, founder of PROP, said on the day’s action. “The point of [the action] is to put into sharp relief how starkly discriminatory police practices are. White people in Park Slope virtually never get ticketed for these kind of activities whereas African-American and Latino people in different neighborhoods in this city will get sanctioned — ticketed and sometimes arrested — for these kind of activities on a regular basis.”

Robert Gangi, left, talks to other PROP members about to hand out summonses. (WNV / Ashoka Jegroo)

Judging from the responses the activists received throughout the day, it was clear that many white Park Slope residents experience very little routine harassment from the police in their gentrified neighborhood.

“The worst response — which to me is the best because it highlights the truth of how people are really entitled and privileged out here in Park Slope — was from a woman who was just incredulous about being stopped,” Trujillo said. “She was like ‘This is Park Slope!’ and she just kind of made it a point to say that in this neighborhood, this doesn’t happen.”

Other Park Slope residents who were stopped also responded with incredulity and sometimes outright anger. One woman who was riding her bike on the sidewalk was stopped by Gangi, and after he explained that people of color in other parts of town get regularly ticketed for that offense, she responded, “I know that, but you’re not a cop. Get out of my way!”

Many residents responded positively as well, though, even signing PROP’s petition to end NYPD quotas and broken windows policing.

Besides this anecdotal evidence, the numbers are also on PROP’s side of the debate. Earlier this year, PROP released a report titled “That’s How They Get You.” It documented 117 stories of people — most of them people-of-color — being ticketed or arrested for small quality-of-life crimes like putting their feet on a subway seat and riding a bike on the sidewalk.

“Part of what’s so deeply offensive about broken windows policing is that it’s a form of bullying,” Gangi said. “It is basically targeting and harassing people who have limited resources, both politically and financially, to fight back.”

An analysis by the New York Daily News also found large racial disparities in enforcement of small offenses. According to the Daily News, the number of summonses given out has “soared” since Broken Windows policing began in the early 1990s. According the New York Civil Liberties Union, 81 percent of the people hit with violations between 2002 and 2013 were black or Latino. Even New York City’s most infamous recent case of police brutality, last year’s murder of Eric Garner by cops in Staten Island, was a textbook case of broken windows policing, with Garner originally being stopped for allegedly selling loose cigarettes.

(WNV / Ashoka Jegroo)

In all, the activists, divided into three groups at locations throughout Park Slope, stopped around 50 to 60 people within the span of two Sunday afternoon hours. They hope that these interactions influence those who were actually stopped, as well as serve as political theater to raise the consciousness of onlookers. PROP will soon be releasing a new report on the racist history of the NYPD, and they have even tentatively planned to hit the streets once again to hand out mock summonses. Ultimately, they seek to not only run Bratton out of New York City and end broken windows, but also to help strip the NYPD of much of its resources and empower communities-of-color.

“We’re going to try to make sure Broken Windows is one of those things that people clearly understand is part of white supremacy,” Trujillo said. “It’s no longer just about small policy reforms, it’s about unearthing and dismantling those policies and saying no to a different, softer version of it. But it’s up to the communities of color. They’re the ones who are going to have to dismantle it.”

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Ashoka Jegroo is a journalist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has bylines in The Santiago Times and the New York Times' The Local blog. He has covered protests in Santiago, Chile and New York City. When he's not causing trouble for the establishment, he's live-tweeting protests at @AshAgony.

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23 comments

Good for these people doing that!! Most people don’t have a clue what happens to other people unless they experience it themselves. Vero – parking tickets are another matter since the cop doesn’t see your color so this is another issue of being stopped by a cop in person. More white people need to experience what people of color go through because that’s all that will wake them up.

This is not about whether white people can pay the fine or not, it is about their reactions to being subjected to a reality that is different than theirs. Most of the people mentioned in this article reacted incredulously to even being stopped at all for their offenses. No one complains when white people commit low level crimes, but people will complain if it is people of color committing them. And if you see black people in traffic court, it’s because unlike the white middle class, they can’t afford to pay their ticket.

Actually this article pointed out the fact that in these “White” area’s, minor crimes and offenses are not handled NOR reported.
Where as simply having slightly more melanin becomes a big red targeted flag.

Often I hear that minorities are the cause and concern for crime in our country today, but if crimes are committed that are not even reported, simply because it’s being ignored, then how can we have accurate numbers on such statistics?

The fact that minorities are pulled over and abused by police more often then white’s, even when whites are committing the same crimes goes to show that there is in fact a discrepancy, which is best not to try and cover up or hide from.

The only way to fix it is to stand together, not as enemys or strangers, but as one.

If I went out, in civilian clothes and no Police ID, and started handing out nonsense summonses I’d expect to be attacked. Those people are lucky they didn’t get a beating.

I write open container summonses on white people all the time. Do you want to know the difference between the white people I’ve written and the people you’re defending? The white people I write are polite and respectful.

Wow Fred. No one is saying white people dont get tickets. They point out, with statistical proof, that cops routinely give minor offense tickets to poor black and brown people. Can you provide evidence this doesn’t happen, or are you just mad at the idea at the disparity being pointed out?

That’s because the poor black and brown people are more likely to commit a summonsable offense.

If I see a white person breaking the law, I don’t say “let’s let them slide, they’re white”. They do the crime, they’re getting written up: white, black, Asian whatever. That’s why I said you people are CLUELESS.

It’s not like the Eddie Murphy SNL sketch where the white people get a free pass on everything.

You should all get a life. Maybe volunteer to help disabled Veterans or help the homeless.

@Fred norris – The brilliant Eddie Murphy SNL sketch was of course exaggerated for ocmic effect, but it works because it expresses a fundamental truth, the same truth under discussion here. Perhaps if you had some Black people in your life you’d understand the truth being pointed out by this action.

“The difference between the white people I’ve written and the people you’re defending [i.e. people of color]? The white people I write are polite and respectful.”

I believe you’ve clearly shown your bias. That’s white supremacy, plain and simple. You view white people are by their very nature polite, while people of color or are by their very nature impolite. Perhaps you should heed Mr. King’s admonition and try judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

“Those people are lucky they didn’t get a beating.” Get a beating for handing out pretend summonses to raise awareness about the inherent bias of Broken Window Policing? Really, that’s your natural reaction? I am sure that all of “The white people I write are polite and respectful,” and ALL of the people that are being defended are NEVER polite and respectful. Did it ever occur to you that maybe people are not polite and respectful towards you because you are not polite and respectful towards them OR that they are upset because they know that the main reason that they are being targeted for the summons is because they are of color in black/brown neighborhood?

Next time set up by Bartel Pritchard Circle and hand out tickets to the drunk cops stumbling out of Farrell’s and into their cars, shouting obscenities with their 32 oz. styrofoam Bud Lights to-go in hand.

HI.MY NAME IS DONNA I CURRENTLY RESIDE IN MILWAUKEE WISCONSIN. I AM A AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN AND I REALLY APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU’ALL ARE DOING. IF POSSIBLE I WILL LIKE TO VOLUNTEER MY TIME AND SERVICE. PLEASE KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK I WILL KEEP YOU’ ALL IN MY PRAYERS.THANKS AGAIN PROP

Reading about this fantastic action brought tears to my eyes – tears of rage at the inequities and tears of joy for your efforts. I no longer live in Brooklyn – but I’de travel there to join you if you do it again. Bravo!

Jews in crown heights never ride their bikes in the street, always on the sidewalk. They will beep their horns or yell at you to move out of their way. There is a mobile command van, cops in cars and walking the beat and I have never seen a jew receive a ticket. They are not even told to get off of the sidewalk. If a Black or Spanish speaking person does that they are surrounded by four to six officers as if they had robbed a Brink’s truck.
Let’s not talk about an opened can of beer.

This would not go over well at all in privileged sections of Berkeley. I routinely observe drivers rolling through stop signs and giving the patented (“sorry, I’m too important to slow down) Berkeley wave.

Wish there was a better way to get people of all colors in the know about the urgency of changing broken windows policies and what they can do, instead of doing to others what we don’t want done to ourselves.

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